Travel Ban Endangers U.S. Troops

There are many issues with Pres. Trump’s travel ban. One important consideration is the risk it poses to U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. We still have several thousand soldiers in Afghanistan and a few hundred in Iraq. Add to that the thousands of U.S. civilians in support of the soldiers serving in those two countries and you have a good many Americans who serve as handy targets for ISIS and Al Qaeda. Political issues that affect the Middle East reverberate in Iraq and Afghanistan. The jihadis are motivated when they hear the U.S. or Western nations supposedly oppressing Moslems.

When I served in Iraq, every staff tracked attacks on Coalition (i.e., U.S.) forces. The statistics were part of the daily briefing presented to every commander. We knew there would be a spike in attacks anytime Middle East or Israel issues became part of the public debate in America. It was part of our intel or “enemy situation” briefing. It is without doubt that right now as we speak, soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are scaling back their activities to some degree to avoid the large spike in attacks. For your average revenge minded terrorist, mainland U.S. is a long way to go. But, northern Iraq and central Afghanistan not so much. See the Brian Chasnoff column in the San Antonio Express News in which Rep. Will Hurd speaks to that concern. Congressman Hurd is a former CIA officer. He would know. As a former U.S. Army officer, I also know. Talk tough here. But, over there, they pay the price.